Fasting, Feasting and the Gadarene Swine

(5th Sunday after Pentecost) (Matthew 8:28-9:1)
Today the Church remembers the life and martyrdom of St. Hyacinthus of Caesarea. He was an attendant in the court of the Emperor Trajan; and his faith, which he had kept secret, became known when the Emperor and his court went to offer sacrifices to the gods of Rome. St. Hyacinthus stood apart from making this offering to idols; and so was accused and brought to trial before the Emperor. Trajan urged him to deny Christ and sacrifice to the gods of Rome, but the saint refused to do so, declaring his love and reverence for our Lord, adding that he brought himself to Christ as a living sacrifice. After he had been whipped, spat upon, and flayed, he was thrown into prison. The only food they brought him was food that had been offered to the idols, which St. Hyacinthus refused to eat. He starved to death over a period of eight days; and when they came to take away his body, two shining angels were seen with him, one covering his body in a glorious set of clothing, and the other placing a wreath of glory on his head. The whole prison was filled with a radiant light.

In the reading today from the Gospel according to St. Matthew, we hear of the people of the region of the Gadarenes, and of a herd of swine being kept there. Of course, the Jews were forbidden to eat meat from swine – but apparently this did not keep them from doing so. This is in stark contrast to the decision made by the holy martyr Hyacinthus, who would not eat food that had been offered to idols.

When we fast, we do not abstain from foods because the foods are poisonous, or dangerous. Fasting has two main components. First, fasting teaches our flesh that it cannot always have what it wants whenever it wants it. In this, fasting is similar to training for participating in an athletic event. We fast in order to bring our flesh – that part of us that is living according to the ways of the world, in opposition to the way of the Holy Spirit – into subjection to our will, which we hope, by God’s grace, is in alignment with the will of God. Thus, fasting is a way to discipline our flesh; to make our flesh obedient to our will, so that, in the fullness of our being, we can be doing what is pleasing to God, and beneficial to the salvation of our souls.

This aspect of obedience exhibited through fasting leads to the second main component: namely, obedience. Even before we grasp the training aspect of fasting, we do well to fast because the Church has told us that this is a practice we need to follow in order to work out our salvation. We do not have to understand every reason why fasting is good in order to be obedient to the instruction of the Church – we just need to obey. This is not a mindless obedience; we should always be studying our faith, and the teachings of the fathers, and the lives of the saints. If we do, we will see they also fasted, in obedience to the Church; and they profited thereby, saving their souls, and being examples of how to do so to others – including us, if we will learn from them. The practice of obedience is an essential step for us to bring our will into conformity to the will of God; so that we may keep His commandments, and so save our souls.

These two components – subjecting the flesh to the will, and learning obedience – are a form of “basic training,” by which we can go from a foundation skill to advancing in spiritual warfare. If we can teach ourselves to abstain from meat, and dairy products, and eggs and even fish during fasting days and seasons, we can also teach ourselves to abstain from the passions that lead us into sins. When we strengthen ourselves by obedience in fasting, we strengthen ourselves to restrain our other appetites – the sources of anger, and hatred, and lust, and envy, and greed, and laziness. And when we make our obedience to the will of God an offering of our love to Him, we enter into the ability to love God with the fullness of our being, and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves – and so we gain the ability to keep the Great Commandment which our Lord Jesus Christ gave to us for our salvation.

Brothers and sisters, called to be saints: Let us not be like those who, given the command of God to abstain from eating the flesh of swine, chose instead to satisfy the cravings of their flesh, only to lose what they prized because of the demons. Let us instead preserve our holiness through our commitment to Christ, as did the holy martyr Hyacinthus. Let us pray, and give, and struggle against our passions to live a holy life; and let us fast to increase our ability to overcome the passions – to the glory of God, and the salvation of our souls.

Holy martyr Hyacinthus, pray to God for us!